Beautiful Disaster
by TwoRebels
Summary: It's been three years. One drunken call and one emotional girl later....and everything changes.
1. Chapter 1

It's said over and over that you can drink your problems away. The number one cure to a broken heart is supposed to be at the bottom of every bottle.

I can tell you firsthand, that's all a lie.

I fell out of my favorite bar that was just outside Port Charles. No not Jakes, that place held to many memories.  
I had just detached myself from another crazy hot girl and the cool night air felt amazing on my face. I managed to stumble to the nearest lamp post and leaned on it for support.

I was drunk. Completely smashed, just like almost every other night of my life. I had spent another night drinking and dancing with random people. Every time I came here I would get hammered then get a room upstairs, and sometimes take a girl with me.

But why was today different? What had made me leave the bar, the alcohol, the girls behind? Today was my anniversary. Exactly three years ago my life had become living hell. Three years ago I let her walk away. Three years ago I became a coward and an alcoholic.

Usually I could distract myself at the bar. I'd either drink so much I couldn't think, or focus all my attention on whatever girl was interested. But not tonight. Tonight she was all I could think about.

After a few minutes of standing alone I realized I needed to get a ride home. I fumbled in my pockets for enough money to get at taxi. Nothing.

"Dammit," I mumbled when all I could find in my pocket was my phone.

I stared at my phone. Who would come get me? Who would get out of bed in the middle of the night to pick up a drunk ex-detective? No one in my family, none of my friends....but she would.

And it was with that thought that I started calling a number I never would have called if I was sober.

"Hello?" her angelic voice answered.

"Hey," I mumbled, "I need you?"

"Wh-what?"

"M drunk," I slurred, "Pleeese comegetme."

I could only hope that she would understand my impaired speech.

"Don't move," she demanded.

* * *

What the hell was I doing? All it took was one phone call and I was leaving a party to go save him. This was crazy!

I didn't even have time to think about it. It didn't take me long to get there. And without even asking him I knew where he'd be.

I parked in the first open space I found and got out to hurry down the sidewalk.

My hair was straightened and parted on the side. I was wearing a nice, tight, black dress and my red heels clicked on the sidewalk as I walked along. I clutched my red purse in anticipation as I hurried towards him.

I turned the corner and I could not only see, but hear his favorite bar. I took just a few more steps before his silhouette came into view.

I would recognize that silhouette anywhere. Even slumped against a lamp post in the middle of the night. My breath caught in my throat and my heart was beating out of control. I had frozen in place 20 feet from him, and he was to out of it to notice me.

I continued to watch as he reached into his pants pocket. Something metal slipped through his fingers and hit the ground.

"Shit," I heard him mumbled, from where I was.

He proceeded to pick up what I now realized was a lighter. He flicked it quickly with his thumb and lit a cigarette. He shoved the lighter back in his pocket and put the cigarette between his lips.

Shock and disappointment ran through me. What had happened to him?

The sight of him standing there smoking brought me back to reality. I quickly covered the last 20 feet between us.

Without a word I came up behind him and pulled the cigarette out of his mouth. I threw it on the ground and stamped it out with my heel.

"Hey what the hell are you - "

He broke off when he saw it was me.

"Lu," he breathed, "You came."

"Of course I came Dante."

He looked shocked, and relieved, and happy all at the same time.

I looked him over starting at his old tennis shoes. They were followed by a loose-ish pair of jeans. And of course a tight gray v-neck that clung to every muscle in his chest. The shirt was covered slightly by a worn leather jacket. My eyes then landed on his face. There were evident black bags under his bloodshot eyes. I could see lipstick smeared on the corner of his mouth. His perfect hair was a total mess. He was as gorgeous as ever.

"Lulu I didn't know what ta do," he mumbled, "I'm drunk."

"I know you are Dante," I said kindly.

"Say that again."

"What?" I asked.

"Dante."  
"Come on Dante," I said, "I need to get you home."

"You're beautiful," he whispered as his eyes trailed up and down my body.

I felt slightly uncomfortable as the drunken Dante Falconeri checked me out, as obviously as he could.

"Do you think you can direct me to your house?" I asked him.

"A course!" he exclaimed, grinning at me stupidly.

"Alright, let's go."

I draped his arm over my shoulder and we started walking down the sidewalk. He leaned most of his weight on me as we walked.

"As a side note," Dante said, "Its friggin sweet that ya found me. Like serously, who could do that?"

I didn't answer, but he continued to ramble incoherently.

"Dante it's ok," I told him, "We'll talk later, ok?"

It's not that I didn't miss listening to his voice or hearing him say my name, but now wasn't the time. I couldn't handle it if Dante said something he didn't mean or wouldn't remember when he was sober.

So we continued silently down the sidewalk. I could smell the alcohol on Dante's breath. His clothes too smelt strongly of the bar and smoke. But even through the stench I could still smell him. That delicious Dante smell still peaked through and into my nose.

We reached my car and I helped Dante into the car and even buckled him. I then hurried around and got in myself.

"Ok," I said, "Tell me where to go."

"Turn right," he demanded.

"Ok," I said, "Just tell me when to turn next.

"Dante?" I said when he didn't answer.

I looked over at him when I was stopped at a stop sign. His head was resting against the chair and his mouth was open. Soft snores were already filling the silence.

I rolled my eyes and pulled a U-turn in the middle of the street. There was no way he could give me directions to the backseat, let alone his house.

So that's how I found myself driving back to my small house at three in the morning with Dante Falconeri in my passenger seat.

He barely woke up as I got him out of the car, up the steps, and through the front door. I was again supporting most of his weight as I pulled him to the couch. I managed to get him laid down and his head on a pillow.

I stared down at the ex-love of my life and couldn't help but smile.

I knew he wouldn't even notice, but I thought I might as well make him comfortable while he was sleeping. I started at his feet and slowly pulled off both of his tennis shoes. I walked to the other side of the couch and reached down to pull his muscular arm out of his leather jacket. Once I got one arm out I was stuck. I began snaking my arm underneath him and started pulling the jacket out with my other arm. I thanked gosh he was sleeping cause I was pretty much giving him a huge hug right now. While laying on him.

I gave the jacket one more tug and Dante's eyes fluttered opened and he smirked.

"Mmm," he mumbled, "You're so sexy."

"And you're so drunk," I replied freeing his jacket and tossing it onto a nearby chair, "Now go back to sleep. Trust me, you need it."

I turned to take a step away but something held me. His calloused hand gripped onto mine, and was not letting go.

"What's wrong Dante?" I asked turning back to him.

He tugged on my arm twice, pulling me closer to him.

"Stay," he demanded.

"Dante, I need to go up to my bed," I told him.

"Stay," he demanded again.

He pulled once more on my hand so I was forced to sit down on the couch next to him.

"Please," he mumbled, staring at me.

"Fine," I gave in, "As long as you promise to sleep.

His eyes snapped shut instantly. I couldn't help but smile again. I removed my shoes and lay down sideways next to him so my back was pressed against his chest. It felt so normal, so right.

Dante's arm instantly draped over my side so his hand dangled in front of my stomach, just like old times.

As much as I loved the feeling of Dante lying there, it hurt like hell.

It hurt that Dante had called me beautiful and sexy. It hurt that he wanted me to stay. It hurt cause I knew these were things he would forget, or maybe even regret when he sobered up. It hurt that laying there with me was basically nothing to him.

Of course it felt normal to me cause I had never let go. It felt normal to him because he had changed and gotten used to sleeping with a different girl each night.

But even as I was drowned with pain and my tears stung with hot tears, I didn't get up. I couldn't even bring myself to remove Dante's arm from around me. Because in the end, I would take this pain night after night if it meant being in Dante's arms. Because though in three years I hadn't felt his much pain, I also hadn't felt this alive.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Dante's POV**

I shifted slightly, but found I could barely move. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and opened them slightly. I came face to face with the most beautiful face I had ever seen.

Lulu looked peaceful and happy and safe. My heart swelled at the thought that she could sleep so calmly. I thanked God she wasn't plagued with nightmares like I was.

My head pounded and I closed my eyes due to the pain. I moaned out loud suddenly realizing how bright the light was pouring through the window. I slid down so I could lie on my back and Lulu started moving. I stared at her face. She was still sleeping.

She shifted her body weight so she was nearly on top of me and rested her head on my chest. I knew it was wrong to take advantage of her while she was sleeping. I should have gotten up and let her sleep by herself.

But I couldn't.

I wrapped my arm around her the best I could and tried to fall back asleep.

I closed my eyes but I still saw Lulu's face.

Her calm expression slowly morphed. All of the sudden her face was glaring at me. Her eyes were red and puffy and tears were running down her face.

It was the image of her breaking up with me.

My heart broke again while I lay on her couch, picturing the pain on her face and knowing that I caused it.

I wasn't sure if I was dreaming or being forced to remember but suddenly the day she walked out started playing in my mind.

"What the hell Dante!" she spat at me.

"Lulu, do we really have to do this?" I asked her, tossing my coat down on our couch.

"Are you serious?" she questioned, "This is the fifth time you've stood me up. And when I came to visit you at work, you barely smiled. And what about last night?"

"I told you I was gonna be home late," I said shortly.

"And I was still awake wasn't I?" she said, "Sitting here on the couch. And you mumbled goodnight as you walked by and that's it."

"Are you really gonna get mad at me for that?"

"If it was just that, no!" I said honestly, "But seriously Dante I feel like I'm the only one who cares anymore!"  
"Look Lulu," I said angrily, "I've had a lot going on. I have to do serious and stressful stuff at my job!"

"And what that gives you the right to treat me like shit!?" she exclaimed.

"If you're gonna get pissed at me, at least have a good reason," I told her, "I don't want to deal with this."

The anger quickly faded off my girlfriends face. She stared at me blankly and a tear fell off her cheek. I wanted to brush the others away but I could feel her emotions radiating off of her and they acted as a shield. My heart broke as she let her pain shine through.

All of my promises came flushing back as she stared at me. I wasn't gonna hurt like all those other guys would. I would treat her with never ending respect and love her unconditionally. I wouldn't break her heart.

"When did this happen to you?" she asked quietly, and somehow it hurt more than the yelling, "When did you stop being you. The fun loving, respectful Dante Falconeri. When did you turn into a jackass with no emotions except pity for yourself. Cause when that happened you stopped being the guy I love. I'm sick of trying to help you sort out your shit, when you don't even want to talk. I don't know what the hell happened but I know you don't care about me and you anymore. So if you're done, I'm done."

She grabbed her coat and purse and nothing else. She shot me one last look of disgust and walked out the door.

It didn't register as the door slammed. It didn't register the next morning when she wasn't in the kitchen trying to make me breakfast. But whenever it did sink in hit me hard.

And the way Lulu looked at me, haunted me from then on. That one look said so much. But most of all it made it clear that she realized I had turned into another guy that would rip out her heart and throw it in her face.

I had broken her and I knew this time, she may never be fixed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**LULU'S POV**

My hands were shaking as I tried pouring hot water into my coffee machine. I had expected last night to be a crazy dream. I thought I'd wake up crying like I had so many other times. However, this morning was the complete opposite. I had woken up laying on top of Dante instead of next to him.

He had somehow got underneath me so he was lying on his back. I had been lying on my stomach with my head on his chest.

His face, of course, had been the first thing I'd seen. The shock and amazement that it hadn't been a dream was the reason I was currently shaking.

I didn't know what to do or how to react. This was all so crazy! I hadn't seen or talked to Dante since three years ago when we were in love. Now after all the time, here I was taking care of him like he was my drunk boyfriend that I would pick up when he wanted to party.

As my coffee started to brew I decided the first thing I should do is change. I ran up to my room grabbed the first comfortable thing I saw. A tight white t-shirt and baggy sweatpants. I ran a brush through my hair and decided that was good enough. Maybe if I was dressed like this Dante wouldn't have the urge to say sweet drunken things to me that would make butterflies erupt in my stomach.

It was with that thought that I ran back down my stairs and into my kitchen. I jumped in surprise when I saw Dante sitting on a stool in my kitchen. His head was resting awkwardly on the surface of the counter.

"Hey Dante," I said walking around the counter so I was across from him.

He slowly lifted his head off the counter to look at me.

"Hey Lulu," he replied.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, having no idea what else to say.

"Like shit," he answered me shortly.

I couldn't control the rush of affection that ran through me as he dropped his head back to the counter.

"You still look nice," he mumbled into the marble.

Damn him for being able to read my mind!

"Dante," I said, still feeling sorry for him, "How much did you drink last night?"

"A lot."

"Ok, well go back into the living room where it's comfortable," I instructed, "I'll bring you coffee."

"Thanks," he mumbled standing up slowly.

I watched as he paused to find his balance and then went shuffling back to the living room.

I poured myself a cup of coffee then had a thought. I went to my fridge and poured Dante a glass of sweet tea. I also grabbed him an Advil. I then followed him back into the living room and handed him his goods before curling up the couch across from him.

Dante was sitting up, not laying, but he was slumped down really far so he could rest his head against the back cushion. I waited until he had successfully taken the medicine before talking.

"Dante," I said again, "Is there someone you want me to call? Someone who can come get you and take you home?"

"Why?" he asked, "You want me to leave?"

My insides were screaming NO as loud as they could but I couldn't tell him that. I could never let that slip out.

"You can stay as long as you need," I told him, "But I think its better that someone that knows you takes care of you."

"No one knows me better than you," he told me closing his eyes.

I shook off the pleasure I got from his comment, knowing it wasn't gonna last.

"Do you want me to call Ronnie?" I asked, "Or Morgan, Michael, Kristina? Your mom?"

"Go ahead and call all of them," he replied, eyes still closed, "None of them are gonna come."

I sat in confusion for a second as Dante rubbed his temples.

"I haven't talked to any of them in probably two years," he explained, "After I lost you three years ago, I changed. Not into a mobster or anything but into a jerk and a borderline alcoholic. I stopped talking to my mom and family cause I didn't want to hurt them like I hurt you. I got kicked off the force, again. I figured if my family wanted to talk to a drunk like me they would. No one has tried to contact me."

My heart broke quietly for the man I once loved, as he explained his story. I had been in terrible shape too, but I had my friends and family to keep me sane when Dante and I broke up.

"Dante, I'm so sorry," I whispered, biting back tears.

"I don't want you to pity me," He said now looking right at me, "I just want you to know why I called you last night. I don't want to hurt you anymore. I just needed someone to help me, and I knew you were my only hope. Once again I was a selfish ass."

As Dante continued his story I could hear him choking up. He wiped his eyes and went on.

"That's all I've ever been Lulu," he told me, "A selfish ass."

"No Dante," I said, feeling my own tears now, "No."

"Yes," he said fiercely, "That's all I've ever been. When we were together I could pretend I was a good guy. I could hide my mob blood and my alcoholic tendencies. I could hide behind you, and my love for you. But when we broke up the true guy in me came up. I turned into this mess, that I was always supposed to be. That's why I didn't come after you. Because I'm a selfish coward. And its better that no one that used to love me knows me now."

Dante finished and looked down at his hands. I could see him shaking as he tried to suppress his sobs. He failed miserably and I could see the silent tears rolling down his face.

More of my heart broke as The Dante Falconeri, detective, Heart-breaker, Womanizer, Egotistical Tough Guy, broke down in front of me. He set his pride aside and was crying in front of me and that alone was enough to make me start bawling.

I stood and quickly moved over so I was sitting next to Dante. He was now resting his elbows on his knees, so he was completely slumped over. I put my arm immediately around his shoulder and rested my head on his shoulder.

"Dante," I whispered, "Don't do this to yourself. You better not really believe that you're all those things you just said. Dante, I'm the girl you didn't follow and I don't think you're selfish or a coward."

"Lu," he whispered, "Don't do that. I am what I am, you can't change that."

"Yes I can Dante," I told him, "Because like you said I know you best. And that means I know you even better than you know yourself. So I know that deep down is the loving, amazing, sweetheart Dante and it's sometimes covered by this Dante. You have it backward Dante, because if deep down you were a mess, you never would have been able to put that aside. It always would have shown through and I never would've fallen in love with you. But I did Dante, because you put down your walls and let me in. "

"You haven't seen me these past three years," he insisted, "All those people you mentioned have. And if them not talking to me isn't enough of a sign, you're not as smart as I thought you were."

I could not let this go on. There was no way I was going to let Dante go on convincing himself that he was a bad person.

"Do you want to talk to them?" I asked, forming a plan, "Do you miss them? Do you miss your family?"

"Of course, I do," he said weakly, "I'd do anything to change these past three years."

"Good," I said, "Now drink the rest of your coffee and go take a shower. First door on the right when you go upstairs. Leave your clothes on the floor outside. Let me take care of everything else."

"What are you thinking?" Dante demanded of me.

"Don't worry about it," I whispered to him, "Just trust me Dante."

"I do," he whispered looking back at me.

Our faces were a few inches apart and I almost lost control as he whispered to me.

"Lulu," he said, "What if I'm too hungover to stand in the shower for that long?"

Even though he was serious, a smile appeared on my face.

"Take a bath," I told him, "But don't drown. And if you're too dizzy to get upstairs, just call to me."

Five minutes later I walked upstairs to the bathroom. Dante's clothes were lying on the ground outside the door just as I wanted them to be. I could hear the water running on the other side of the door. Apparently he had enough confidence in himself to shower.

Again I couldn't suppress a grin as I grabbed his clothes and ran back downstairs. I threw them into the washer and hoped one wash would be enough to free them of their smell.

I then went back to my living room and pulled out my cell phone. Time to get serious.

Twenty minutes later I was slumping on my couch, with my phone lying next to me. I was half way through my plan. As I took a second to breathe and thought I heard a creaking on the stairs. I looked up and sure enough Dante was on his way down.

His hair was wet and sticking in different directions all over his head. I could see a few drops of water still running down his chest. Oh, his bare chest which looked just as muscular as it had three years ago. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, but it was short enough that I could still see half of his leg.

I wanted to look away so bad, but my emotions took over me and all sensible thought left me.

Dante Falconeri was 15 feet away from me, half naked. If it happened to you, you would forget everything else too!

"Lu," He said quietly, "What'd you do with my clothes?"

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed, jumping up, "I'm so stupid. I washed them for you but I got distracted and forgot to bring them back. One second!"

I scolded myself as I ran into another room and pulled his clothes out of the dryer.

"Here you go," I said, walking up the bottom few steps to reach him.

"Thanks," he said, "And I made it just fine in the shower, thanks for asking."

I ignored him cause I knew he was joking.

"When you're done getting dressed call me and I'll show you to my hair products," I replied, "You still do that don't you?"

"Of course," He said in a 'duh' tone, "Be right back."

Now that Dante wasn't drunk anymore, his sense of humor was coming back. And yes, that was making it even harder for me to not get attached to him. I just had to keep telling myself that he wasn't here to stay, I couldn't get used to him.

Within the next hour, Dante got dressed and fixed his hair, I made breakfast, we ate together and we were now sitting in my living room. I had decided to sit across from him. It was easier that way.

"So Dante," I said, "Tell me about working at the PCPD."

"What about it?" he replied, with a smile, "You know pretty much everything about it. We were together for 3 of the years I worked there."

"What happened afterward though?" I asked quietly, "After they...fired you."

Dante was quiet for a second, and I was afraid I had gone too far. But I just needed to know before the rest of my plan took place.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I shouldn't have asked you – "

"Lulu its ok," Dante assured me, "I'm not gonna freak out or lose it again. And besides, after everything you've done for me, not just last night, but my whole life, you deserve to know."

"Well Dante, I'll tell you what I think first," I said, "From what you told me, I don't think you're entirely at fault. You stopped talking to your mom because you didn't want to disappoint her."

"And now that I haven't talked to her in three years, I think it's pretty obvious that she'll hate me," Dante countered.

"You're mom will never hate you," I told him, "And I know deep down you don't really believe that she would."

"But Michael and Kristina," he went on, "And Morgan. They ignored me too."

"Dante, didn't you ignore them too?" I asked, "They stopped talking to you when you stopped talking to them."

"Yeah."

"I think it's pretty obvious that they miss you too," I said, "They don't hate you. They just wanted to respect you. If you didn't want to see them, they were gonna let you be. You miss them though right. You want to see them?"

Dante remained quiet for a second before turning his head up to look at me.

"That's one thing I want," he admitted quietly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked after a brief pause, "About what happened....to us?"

Dante broke our eye contact to stare at down at his hands.

"I wouldn't know where to start," he admitted.

"How about the day we broke up," I suggested, "Do you remember it?"

He scoffed, sitting up so he could look at me again.

"Do I remember it?" he asked, "Like it was yesterday. But if we only talk about that day it will look like it was all your fault. If we back up some I can take some of the blame."

It sounded harsh, but the grin on his face and tone of his voice assured me he was joking. Even through all of this he still had that same sense of humor.

"So, when did it start?" I urged.

"Do you remember how long Claudia's case lasted?" Dante asked, taking me back to our first few months together.

"Yeah," I replied, "At least a year after you were shot."

"Yeah," he agreed, "And none of it mattered."

I could sense the frustration from three years ago growing in Dante as he talked about it.

"After all of the time, and the pain, and the investigating," he went on, "After the PCPD drilled all the innocent people in Sonny's life during the trial, he got away. And with what? A slap on the wrist?"

"Yeah," I remembered, "And they were able to pin the murder on Franco."

"And a week later he was in a 'mysterious' explosion," Dante mocked, "I wonder who caused that mysterious explosion. But anyway, I was pissed to say the least, you of all people know that."

"But you stayed at the PCPD," I said, "You were one of their best cops."

"So we all thought, huh?"

"What - what do you mean?"

He took a deep breath and I could see him reliving moments in his mind.

"My next big case after that was to bust the guy starting fires on the very outskirts of town."

"Yeah, I remember," I said, "You worked your butt off for that case."

"Ironic isn't it?" he mumbled, rubbing his head.

"Anyway that one night I was ready to bust the guy," Dante continued, "I was excited and glad it was gonna be over. Do you remember what I told you?"

I felt pain pierce through me. Not only because of the look on Dante's face but because I remembered that night perfectly.

Dante was ready to make the bust. He had finally had the evidence on the random fire guy and just like he said, he was excited. We were in my apartment where Dante had officially moved into with me. Maxie and Spinelli had moved out of course.

He told me he was going to bust the guy and he'd be back.

"You said," I started, "That you'd be back and we'd celebrate. You told me if I waited up for you, you'd make it worth my while."

"Jackass move number 1," Dante said sadly, "Remember?"

"Yeah," I replied, "You didn't come back."

"And I didn't even tell you why," he said.

"The next day, you told me the bust didn't happen as planned," I said.

"That was an understatement," he said, continuing to beat himself up over whatever happened.

"Dante," I whispered, "What happened that night?"

"It wasn't just that night," he admitted, "But that's when it started. So we took the guy in, Danny Hampton was his name. We arrested Danny and while that was happening, Ronnie was out investigating a simple case. I got a call as we were questioning Danny."

Dante broke off and gripped his hair again.

Something inside of me took control of my body. I got off the couch and walked slowly across the room. I sat down right next to Dante and took his hand.

"It's ok," I assured him, giving his hand a squeeze, "What happened with Ronnie?"

"It was a set up," he told me, "Whatever case he was investigating was a set up from the real fire guy. The real criminal, Jacob McNight, had framed Danny, set up a trail for Ronnie and lit up the cabin Ronnie was investigating. Ronnie was burnt, bad."

"That's when they sent him away," I finished for him, "Everyone thought he had just left, but - "

"But because of my suggestion, they took him out of town to some other hospital until his burns were treated," Dante explained, "And it was all my fault. Right after I had blown the Claudia investigation."

"But," I started, a little confused, "Dante you were still with the PCPD. Clearly it wasn't your fault if they kept you."  
"That's what I never understood," he said, "Why didn't they? I messed up two huge investigation and they didn't fire me? I decided it was because I was Sonny's father and they were still using me to try to get to him."

"Dante, that's not true," I told him, "The PCPD worshiped you, you were there best cop. I think you're blaming yourself a little too much. Think about all the crimes you did solve. You busted for people than the other detective, combined."

"It's irrelevant," he persisted, "But it did make me the most selfish guy I know. I stopped caring about the good, and I focused on the bad shit. I felt sorry for myself. I wallowed in my pity and everything else became second in my life. Even you. I became obsessed with working and solving cases."

"That's when you started - "

"Missing dates?" he finished for me, "Blowing you off? You were exactly right when you broke up with me. I had stopped putting effort into the relationship. It was all take and I never gave you anything. And Lulu a day doesn't go by that I don't regret it. I promised you I'd treat you right. I wanted to. And walking away from me is what I deserved. And you deserved so much better and I can never tell you how sorry I am."

"Dante stop," I demanded, "If you want to get passed this all this regret has to go. You can never move on, if you don't forgive yourself first."

We sat in silence for a moment, each taking in what the other had said. Dante was about to speak again when my doorbell rang.

I could see surprise appear on his face.

"Are you expecting someone?"

**What does everyone think???**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Within five minutes everyone I had called had arrived at my house. We had all gathered in my living room. I was the last to sit down, but knew I'd be the first to talk.

I looked around at the people who had come. I was sitting on the small couch with Dante. His mom was in the chair by the window. Ronnie was sitting on the other chair. Michael, Morgan, and Kristina were sitting with each other on my large couch.

"Ok," I started, "First of all I'd like to thank you all for coming. I've seen Michael and Morgan a lot, but the rest of you it's been awhile and it's good to see you. But we all know we're not here to catch up on our daily lives."

"Lulu, none of them want to be here," Dante whispered so only I could hear.

I shot him a pleading look, begging him to go along with it. He seemed to give in, but his next action surprised me.

"Stop," he said firmly, "This is wrong. Lulu called you all here and is about to go into some speech to fight a battle. A battle that isn't hers to fight. I don't deserve to have her do this for me. The truth is, until last night I haven't spoken to her in exactly three years."

I was filled with confusion as Dante took over the speech. I looked around again at the people in my living room. They were all staring silently at him. It was hard to tell how they were feeling.

"Lulu and I have been talking about what happened and she made me realize this is all my fault."

"Dante," I said, slightly offended that he was gonna blame it all on me.

"No, it's a good thing," he assured me, "It really is. I always thought that you all hate me. I thought that if you ever wanted to talk to me you would contact me. But I never thought about it this way, I didn't try to contact you either. Maybe you do all hate me, and the only reason you're here is because you couldn't say no to Lulu. But now that you're here, please allow me to apologize for being the terrible person I am."

Dante took a deep breath and turned towards his mom.

"Ma," he said, "I love you. I know I haven't contacted you in two years, but I did that for you. I am so ashamed of the person I've become and I wanted to spare you from seeing me like that. I didn't want you to blame yourself for raising a son like me, cause really it's all my fault. "

"Same for you Ronnie," he said turning to his friend, "You were my mentor and I can never thank you enough for helping me, always. We had our rough patches, but in the end we always had each others backs. And man I can never begin to apologize for what happened - "

He broke off and I knew he was trying not to choke up due to grief and guilt at what had happened.

"And you three," he said turning to his siblings, "We started out rough. But we got through it. There are obviously some things we never agreed on but we agreed to disagree. We were so close and I messed it up. I didn't want to be the odd man out in our group. The one who was the problem, I was stupid and selfish and I'm sorry."

"And to all of you, this doesn't even begin to explain all the terrible things I've done."

"Dante," Olivia said forcefully, "Stop.

"You don't need to tear yourself apart for us," she went on, "You're my son, and I wasn't there for you. You have gone through so much, and I never once tried to contact you. I love you Dante, so please do not blame this all on yourself."

"I wanted to beat you alive sometimes," Michael admitted, "But we did the impossible and not only got along, but loved each other as the brothers we are. I hated it when you hurt Lulu, but I never hated you."

"Remember when you would take me, Michael, and Morgan out to eat?" Kristina asked, "Then we would do something random and fun? We haven't done that. Not since we stopped talking to you, cause it wouldn't have been the same. None of us wanted to do it without you."

"Dante," Morgan said quietly, "I love you man. And it's really sad, cause I have no idea what your opinion is on the last three Yankees seasons."

I saw a grin slide onto Dante's face.

"You see," I stated, "It was all one big misunderstanding. Everyone messed up and we all could have done more."

"I sure hope it's not too late now," Dante agreed.

I smiled hugely at him as Morgan ran forward for the first hug. After that hugs were flying around everywhere. We decided that we would meet again soon to discuss moving on, each other, and everything, but now wasn't the time. I knew we needed to take things slow. So after hugging everyone in the room, they all started to leave.

"Dante you need a ride home?" Michael offered.

"Thanks man, but not now," Dante replied, "I got some stuff to take care of here first."

"Alright I understand," Michael said, "See you guys."

"Ooh," Kristina said, "Things to do here. Wonder what that could be?"

"Oh shut up," I smiled, "Nothing happened."

"Sounds like it's about to!" she sang.

"Yeah if everyone ever leaves," I joked.

"But seriously," she said, "Don't even try to tell me you're over him."

"That's not the point," I said, "Dante has a lot going on right now. I'm sure getting back with me is not the first thing on his mind."

"It sure looked like it from the way he was looking at you."

"Go away," I laughed, hitting her.

"Ok, ok I'm going," she said, "Bye Dante!"

Kristina and I had actually gotten pretty close due to the time I was with Dante.

And, of course, she was the last to go.

I closed the door behind her and turned to face my now, almost empty living room. Dante was standing in the middle of it staring at me.

"You're amazing," he said, "Seriously. You just brought all those people back together without one fight, argument, or death glare."

"I told you no one hated you," I smiled.

"What about you?" he asked stepping closer to me.

"What about me?" I asked, unsure of where he was going with this.

"Do you hate me?"

"Of course I don't," I admitted quietly, "Why would I?"

"I broke your heart," he said, steadily, "Don't even pretend our break up wasn't my fault."

"And we're right back to where we started before everyone showed up," I commented.

"No, we're a bit better now," he replied, "We at least talked through our break up."

"When I left," I started quietly, "I went to Carly and bawled. I remember asking her repeatedly why you didn't follow me."

"I bawled to," Dante admitted, rubbing the back of his next, "I'm sorry I didn't follow you."

"You did what you thought I wanted," I whispered.

We were now standing close enough I was sure he could hear me.

"How can I be mad, at you for listening to me?"

"Lulu," he whispered, "I should go."

The sudden change in mood brought me back to reality.

"What?"

"I've intruded long enough," he said, "I can't even begin to thank you for everything you've done in the last 12 hours. But don't worry I'll make it up to you. I just need to go home, give you some alone time, and change my clothes."

"Of course," I said trying not to sound disappointed, "But you can come back, you know."

"Thank you," Dante said again.

"Dante, I'm really proud of the way you handled everything today," I admitted, "You were great."

He smiled and the next thing I knew I was in his arms. His strong arms were wrapped all the way around me, squeezing me in the famous Dante Falconeri hug.

"You will right?" I asked when we pulled away.

"I will what?" he replied.

"You'll come back?"

"You're damn right I will," he responded fiercely.

We shared one last smile before he stepped around me and out the door. I listened as he called for a taxi before walking down the steps in front of my house.

"Dante!" I called when he reached the bottom of my steps.

I knew I probably sounded desperate, but I didn't care.

"Lu," he called back.

"Thanks for calling me," I told him, "Last night. I'm glad you did."

"Me too," he responded, making my spirits soar.

And right at that moment, as if it were a movie, his taxi pulled up and within 30 seconds he was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

**Dante's POV **

"I can't believe you brought me here," Lulu was laughing as we sat down at the bar.

"This is where all the hell began," I told her, "And this is where I want it to end. I haven't been here all week you know."

Yes, it had been a full week since that fateful drunken phone call. And I was doing amazing at turning my life around, all thanks to Lulu of course. We were still just friends, but we were doing great that way.

We ordered our drinks then turned to face each other on the stools.

"So how are things with Michael, Morgan and Kristina?" she asked me.

"Good," I told her, "They're all so awesome. Morgan has been to hell and back so many times and he's still a kid. But he's still such a good kid."

"He worships you," Lulu said, "You know that right?"

"That's why I was scared to see him the past few years," I admitted, "He's had enough bad influences in his life. But anyway, we're doing good and I hope we can get back to being good siblings again."

"You will," she assured me.

"Ooh! Guess what!" I said getting excited, "This weekend the four of us are gonna go to the wave pool then have a donut eating competition!"

Lulu laughed loudly as we were handed our drinks.

"That's great," she said, "Very creative. Who came up with it?"

"Me of course," I told her.

As our laughter ended our eyes met like they had been doing all week. The only reason I could bring myself to look away from her eyes, was too stare at her lips. They were smiling and looked so ready to be kissed. No, I couldn't risk our new found friendship.

"Dante," Lulu whispered, making me want to kiss her even more.

"Hhmm?" I asked, still staring at her lips

"Just kiss me."

I didn't have time to look up at her or to let shock run through me. As soon as her words registered in my brain, my lips were on hers.

Suddenly I was kissing the girl of my dreams, in a way I never imagined. Our lips moved together, just as they used to. My tongue slid easily into her mouth and my hands fit perfectly on her waist. Her fingers were playing with the bottom part of my hair. That was a privilege that only Lulu ever had, touching my hair. And let me tell you, she took advantage.

We kissed each other hungrily, until we both needed air. When we pulled back, I kept our foreheads resting together.

"Dance with me," I demanded, suddenly.

Lulu looked slightly taken aback, but pleased. I couldn't explain the sudden urge to dance with the beautiful girl in front of me. I wanted so badly to stand close with her and sway to the music. She led me to the dance floor and we had barely stopped walking before my arms were around her.

A slow song began right on cue and I pulled our bodies close together. I pressed a gentle kiss on Lulu's lips before moving to right under her earlobe. I continued my stream of kisses all the way down to her neck where I started leaving my mark.

"Dante," she whispered.

I mumbled back, not wanting to stop what I was doing.

"Dante," she whispered again, "I have a confession."

This caught my attention so I stopped kissing her long enough to look up into her eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I never stopped loving you."

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, I knew everything was going to be ok. My job would come back, our family would rekindle, and most of all, I'd never have to let Lulu go again.

"Lulu," I whispered back, "I never stopped thinking about you, let alone stop loving you."

As my words registered in her mind, her huge smile broke out across her face. The smile that could break my heart but make it soar at the same time.

Our lips crashed together again as my hands tightened the grip on Lulu's waist.

"Dante," she said again, "Do you want to get another drink."

"Hell no," I replied quickly, "I want to remember everything about tonight."

Lulu smiled again, then started moving to the faster song that I had just come on. I laughed as she busted out her dance moves, but didn't let me go. My only choice was to start dancing too.

"I love you," I told her, realizing how much I missed saying that.

"Mmmm, say that again," Lulu demanded.

"I love you."

Lulu leaned close to me and let her breath breeze across my face. I could feel her lips touching my ear as she whispered to me.

"Don't ever let me walk away from you again," she demanded quietly in my ear, "I love you so much."

**ATTENTION!! This is my planned ending, HOWEVER if anyone has any idea or requests on ways they want me to continue it, I would be more than happy! I just love this couple! Please let me know!! Or just leave me some final thoughts on the story! Thank you to everyone!**


	6. Note

I know it's been awhile but I'm finally thinking about continuing this story! I can't believe I never did. I finally came back and looked and realized I didn't. Anyone interested?


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Are you ready to go?" I asked Dante as I walked back into my living room.

He was sitting on our couch, with his hands in his hair.

"No," he replied shortly.

I stood in front of him grabbing his hands in mine. His eyes slid up my body until they made contact with mine.

"It's time," I told him, "You can do this. There's no reason to be scared. I already talked to Lucky and he told me they need more people, especially someone as valuable as you."

"There's gonna be someone there thought," Dante said, "Someone that doesn't forgive me."

"You haven't worked there in three years," I replied, "If anyone is still holding a grudge on you, screw them. Who the hell cares what they think. You're Dante Falconeri. You busted cases that no one could have figured out."

"I broke you down too," he said with a smirk, "So I guess I can't be that bad."

I rolled my eyes, trying to suppress a smile, then walked out the door. Dante caught up with me as I was getting in the front seat of his car.

We had been living together in my apartment for a few weeks now. He had been rebuilding his relationships during the day while I was at work, but we decided it was time for him to get back on the force. Within no time, we were walking in the front doors of the PCPD.

"But what if Mac just yells and makes me leave?" Dante was asking, "I don't know if I can face him yet."

"It's not like he fired you," I replied.

"Yeah but I left which is just embarrassing."

"You're such a baby!" I smiled, "Put your pride down for like one second and get your job back. Once you're back to busting criminals you can go back to bragging about yourself and being arrogant."

"I resent that," Dante joked as we approached the guy at the main desk.

"Good luck."

Dante had just begun to explain his situation to the guy when the Commissioner himself walked into the room.

"Dante Falconeri," he said, "I heard rumors about you resurfacing."

"Yes sir," Dante said, "I know I left pretty abruptly a few years back but I was hoping there may still be a spot for me here. I'd like to reapply and even start back as a trainee if I have too. But I really enjoyed working here and I think I've sorted myself out enough that I'm ready for this job."

"So you think you can just walk back in here after three years and expect that we still need you?" Mac replied, with no sign of joking on his face.

I was shocked, and I felt terrible. I had convinced Dante to give in another try and assured him that Mac would understand.  
"Mac," I spoke up, "Dante did nothing wrong when he worked here. He left by his own choice. And if you seriously think you don't need his help then I might have to report you to the DA! The crime in this city never stops and you know it! Dante was one of your best – "  
"Lulu!" Mac exclaimed, "I was kidding. We'd be lucky to have him back."

"Oh my gosh are you serious!" I gushed, blushing slightly.

"Thank you," Dante said calmly, shaking Mac's hand, "I'll do whatever you need me to do."

"Well," Mac said, "I know someone who will be very glad to hear that you're back with us. He's never worked with anyone as well as he worked with you."

And right then my brother came walking out of the interrogation room.

"Congratulations Detective Spencer!" I exclaimed, "You have your partner back!"

A smile broke out on Lucky's face.

"That's great man," he said walking over to us and extending a hand to Dante, "It hasn't been the same."

"Thank you," Dante said again, and I had a feeling he could think of nothing else to say right now, "I'm glad to be back in the world of the living."

"How about we go to Jake's tonight," Lucky suggested, "To celebrate."

"Actually," I said, "Dante doesn't know it yet, but he has plans."

"Oh do I?" he asked seductively, turning to look at me.

"Yeah," I said, "With your family. Kristina called me. She, Molly and Michael organized a dinner tonight at Alexis' house. The four of them will be there and so will Mac. They invited me and my job is to bring you. Your mom will be there too and she told me she's bringing Steve."

"And Sonny?" Dante asked, "Will he be her?"

"Most likely," I replied, "But don't worry about that. Your siblings just want a nice night of family."

Dante smiled, "As long as you're there."

I sighed as my pulled my jacket on over my t-shirt. Lulu had told me to dress semi-nice, but I figured this jacket made me appropriate. I was, yet again, sitting in the living room waiting for Lulu to finish getting ready.

I knew tonight was going to be a good time, I wasn't worried about that. What made me nervous was Sonny. I had only talked to him once or twice since I've been back.

I didn't really despise him anymore. It was easy to not feel so passionate about it after all this time. I wasn't about to ask him for a nice father-son golf trip or anything, but I could get along with him, for my Michael and Kristina's sake.

"I'm ready!" Lulu's voice broke me out of my thoughts and I stood up to face her.

Her hair as parted on the side so her bands swooped perfectly across her face. The rest of it was curly and laying across her shoulders and back. She was wearing a black skirt that flew loosely around her, but cut off above her knees. The shirt she was wearing hugged her chest perfectly, clearly leaving me speechless.

"Wow," I said, "Can we please skip the dinner. I think they'll understand."

"Not an option," Lulu replied, drawing my attention to her lips, "But I don't think it will last all night. Maybe we'll end up at Jakes. Or maybe, we won't even make it that far."

"Mmm, don't torture me," I demanded, "We still have to sit through a nice…family dinner."

"Well," she smiled, "It should be interesting!"

Twenty minutes later we were sitting down around a large table in the Davis' dining room. I was sitting by Lulu and Kristina. Molly was next to her. Across from me was Michael who had my mom and Steve on one side and Sonny on the other. Mac and Alexis were sitting on the head of each side of the table.

My mom had helped Alexis and together they had prepared a delicious meal. We passed the food around and along with people filling their mouths was the sound of loud, happy chatter. As we all finished eating Kristina and Molly hurried us into the living room where we would apparently be hanging out a little more.

"I'm so glad everyone came!" Kristina squealed, running over to me and landing on the couch next to Lulu and I.

"I'm glad you guys put this together," I told her, "It's nice for us all to be together sometimes."

"I hope our family just keeps growing!" Molly exclaimed, "Once Mac marries mom and you two get married. And then Michael and Kristina you guys will be next!"

"Whoa there Molly," Michael said, "We can barely handle our family now. Maybe we should get used to this one before we think about expanding."  
He flashed me a grin, knowing marriage was always a touchy subject.

"Yeah, we're all happy right now," Lulu agreed, "I love being included with you guys, though. "

"We love having you!" Kristina said, "No matter what, you're already family."

"What's going on in here?" my mom asked, as she and Steve walked in and took a seat.

"Just some sibling bonding," Molly replied.

"Well don't let us stop you," my mom said, "It's great how you guys get along."

"It scares me though," Alexis said, "How good they are at plotting things!"

"Yeah," Mac agreed, "I've been the product of some of those schemes. They're very tricky. "

He wrapped an arm around Alexis as they too sat down. Conversation continued for awhile before I realized someone was missing.

"Hey," I said, "Where's Sonny?"

"Oh, he had to take a phone call," my mom answered, "He went out back."

Lulu's hand rubbed my knee. When conversation continued I turned to her.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

"I think I want to talk to him," I told her, "I don't want to be the one that causes Michael, Kristina, and Molly anymore to be upset about."

"You're turning over a new leaf," she replied with a smile, "Look at all you've done so far."

"Thanks baby," I replied, "I'll be back."


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"I don't know how long!" I exclaimed, barely hearing my voice over the buzzing in my ears, "No longer than an hour."

I couldn't think straight or completely comprehend anything that was being said to me. There were entirely too many people running around me and it was hard to focus.

I'm a cop, I told myself, Why can't I keep a clear mind?

The only answer I could come up with scared me, was I actually being to care?'

Michael, Morgan, Kristina, and Molly were close by, all looking terrified. Alexis was holding onto her daughter as best as she could. Steve has his arms around my mom who looked in shock and just as dazed as I felt. Carly had rushed in a few minutes ago, demanding answers and explanations and running to hold her kids, just as Alexis was. Mac had joined the squad of police. Jason and Sam had been called, but hadn't shown up yet. Three guesses what they were doing. Though I could make out who all was there, they were all a bit blurry. Except the woman in front of me.

"Dante," she said quietly, "Dante!"

I snapped into reality and stared down into the beautiful face of my girlfriend.

"Mac and Lucky need to talk to you."

I walked through the crowd of terrified people knowing that each of them were just as dazed as I was, if not more.

"Mac," I croaked, "You wanted to talk to me?"

"You have to tell us everything you saw."

_I stood up from the couch, smiling around at the room full of people that I was glad to have in my life. When I turned into the kitchen, towards the back door of the house, the smile faded. I was thinking about the conversation I was about to have. Out of all the things that happen in my life, Sonny is definitely the most confusing. _

_I wasn't sure what made me want to go talk to him, I just felt like I should. Especially with all my siblings around who were obsessed with being a happy family. I put my hand on the door knob and slowly pushed it open. _

_I had expected to hear Sonny talking, since Alexis said he was on the phone, but I didn't. I looked around slowly. It was dark and he was wearing a suit, but I still would have seen him. I flicked a nearby switch that shed a pool of light into the small yard._

_That's when my heart sank. Sonny was out in the middle of the yard. Lying on the ground. Swimming in his own blood._

_I had immediately rushed out to the yard. I screamed for someone to call the cops and Mac and come running. Alexis and my mom grabbed the kids, trying to keep them from seeing the unbelievable sight in front of me. Starting then I didn't know what was going on. I could hear Mac yelling unintelligibly as I ran from the house, looking for anyone who could be responsible for this._

Mac put a hand on my shoulder, bringing me out of the trance.

"Thanks man, I'll take it from there."

I turned back to the waiting room in the middle of the hospital where all the innocent people that loved Sonny were waiting anxiously. It didn't matter how I felt about Sonny, I loved the people in front of me and they would be hurt the most if anything ever happened to him.

Robin walked towards us looking terrified.

"He's in the ER with Patrick," she explained to the group of anxious listeners, "It was a knife wound in his side but I don't yet know how much damage was done. Patrick was just set on starting the procedure as soon as possible. There's no telling how long it will take, so please sit down. I know you can't relax, and I'm sorry that's all I can give you right now."

My mom's motherly instincts kicked in and she rushed forward to give Robin a hug. They weren't particularly close, but everyone knew how close Robin and Sonny were and it was clear how upset she was. Steve rushed forward too, leading Robin away from the crowd to talk medical jargon.

"Dante," a small voice behind me said.

I turned to see Morgan and Molly with tears glimmering in their eyes.

"Dante," Morgan said quietly, his voice shaking, "Dad can't die."

And suddenly I felt like I was the one who had been stabbed, right through the heart.

"He won't," I told them, "But he needs you. As soon as Patrick's done and he says you can see Sonny, everyone here that loves him needs to be there for him. When I was in here, hearing the voices of those I loved is what got me through. That's all you can do for him."

They both hugged me tightly. I knew similar scenes were going on all around me but I couldn't bring myself to listen to the heartbreak.

My phone rang and I stepped away from the kids and Lulu.

"Dante, its Jason," the firm voice said, "Do the cops have any leads?"

"No," I told him, "But there is something interesting. Sonny wasn't shot."

"What are you talking about?" Jason demanded.

"I mean it was a knife wound," I explained, "Someone got close enough to stab him in the side."

"That's ridiculous," Jason said, "Sonny would have pulled his gun way before that. Unless…it was someone he knew."

"And trusted," I added, "Which means, we have a traitor."

"So it wasn't Jerry or Johnny," Jason said.

"Unless they hired someone."

"It doesn't make sense. Jerry is the one who gets hired and if Johnny was going to take out Sonny, he want to do it himself," Jason reasoned, "Let me know if there are any updates."

I hung up my phone, running my hands through my hair.

"Hey," Lulu said, coming up behind me, "Was that Jason?"

"Yeah," I told her, "He's ruled out Johnny and Jerry as suspects since Sonny obviously trusted the traitor who did it. But I'm not so sure."

"But Sonny pisses off a lot of people," Lulu said, "There are a lot more options than those too."

"Yeah, "I agreed, "That's what makes this so scary."

"What an awful first case for you to come back to," Lulu stated, "I can't believe your first case back at the PCPD is about who shot Sonny."

"It's not my case," I told her, "Mac doesn't want me involved."

"That's ridiculous!" Lulu exclaimed, "Does he seriously think that you're judgment is going to be cloudy, just because it's Sonny!"

"Maybe it would have been," I said sadly.

"No," she replied with that fierce look in her eye, "We're gonna find out who did this. If it's someone we know, and someone that Sonny didn't pull a gun on, then this is scary as hell. It could be anyone."

"I can't ask you to help me – "

"You're not," Lulu cut me off, "I'm telling you. We're going to find them. "

"We should start with the phone call," Dante suggested, "Maybe whoever he was talking to heard something."

"That's what I'm talking about," Lulu said, "If someone is going to catch this guy, it will be you."

"I sure hope so," I said honestly, "Because I want to do it fast. I've been the cause for trouble in his kids lives for too long, and I can't bear to see them lose anything else."

"Then let's go," Lulu said, "We're going to figure this out. Together."


	9. Chapter 8

The hospital had become one of the most populated hang outs in the evenings. The days following Sonny's surgery were filled with people makes speeches to his still body and crying over top of him. Robin stopped in on him every times she made rounds around the hospital and would stay until someone else came to see him, or until Patrick convinced her to take a break.

Alexis and Olivia both made regular visits and even Luke checked in twice. Carly stopped in everyday, begging Sonny to wake up and reminding him out much he had to live for.

Michael, Morgan, Kristina, and Molly usually stopped in together, but Michael always stayed the longest. No one liked the idea of Sonny's kids seeing him in such a fragile state.

It was heartbreaking to see someone so strong, helplessly laying in a bed and supported by the machines around him.

Dante was currently standing outside the room, staring in at his still father. Still extremely confused on the subject, he hadn't actually gone into his room yet. Although, on a few different occasions he stood outside the room, looking and thinking. On his fourth time of contemplating what to do or say, he pushed open the door and slowly made his way to a chair by Sonny's bed.

"Sonny," he said quietly, unsure of what he was going to say, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that this happened to you. You're kids….they don't deserve this at all. They love you so much, and so does Molly. Even Lulu has been pretty upset lately and you haven't been her favorite person for awhile now. But anyway, seeing how many people in this town care about you just makes things harder. "

He broke off, grabbing his head in frustration.

"I don't know why I don't hate you," he mumbled, "I don't know how I feel about you, but I do know one thing. Whoever did this, will pay. I'm going to find them and arrest them personally. And when you wake up – "

He cut off again and was sitting in silence when the door opened. Michael and Carly were at the door.

"Sorry to interrupt," Carly said.

Dante stood up quickly, smiled at them, and walked out.

"That was weird," Carly stated, sitting in the seat that Dante had just evacuated.

"He's not sure what to feel," Michael told her, "It's exactly what Kristina went through."

Carly shrugged and turned back to Sonny. She and her son both grabbed one of his hands.

Dante had reached the elevator and was waiting for the door to slide open. He was lost in his thoughts, but a commotion at the desk brought him back to reality. Patrick dropped a folder and rushed down the hallway.

"What's going on?" Dante asked the nurse at the desk.

"Someone screamed," the nurse explained, "Dr. Drake said it sounded like Carly."

Dante followed after Patrick, back down the hallways that he had just come from. The door to Sonny's room stood open. Dante found himself back against the glass where he had stood many times before.

Patrick was blocking his view, but Carly had stood and was clutching Michael. Dante stared hard at the part of the bed he could see. The blanket wiggled.

Robin came rushing towards him and went straight into the room. Dante heard her ask Carly and Michael to leave and Dante took that as his queue to go.

"Dante!" he heard Michael call.

"Yeah, I was just leaving."

"He woke up," Michael smiled with a grin, "He's going to be ok."

Dante smiled back at his brother, overtaken by a whole new wave of emotion. Relief?

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"Alright Spinelli," Lulu was saying, "Is anything coming up?"

The two were in Dante's apartment working on the case. Dante had gone to the hospital so Lulu called Spinelli so she could get started on the investigation, they didn't want to waste time.

Spinelli was currently searching the records of people who came in the city by plane in the last week. They were looking for anyone they might recognize. No such luck.

"Well whoever it was had to know that Sonny would be at Alexis'," Lulu reasoned, "So maybe we could think of anyone who knew about that or who had talked to Sonny that day."

"Though it's a definite possibility," Spinelli countered, "There is also a large chance that the demented attacker had simply followed Mr. Sir and waited in the yard for their moment."

Lulu dropped down on the couch in frustration.

"We have nothing," she said, "You've been searching for an hour and we don't have any leads."

"Fair Lulu, it is a long tiresome process," he replied, "But I promise you, Jackal and Stonecold always find something!"

"Does Jason have any leads?"

"Not as of now," Spinelli explained, "He and Sam are investigating all of Mr. Sir's lower employees. They believe one of them may have been bribed."

"Good," Lulu said, "They'll take that angle and we'll look for someone outside the business who may have done this."

The door opened to the apartment and Dante walked in, looking rough.

"Hey," Lulu smiled, getting up to greet him, "How are you?"

"I don't know," Dante answer honestly giving Lulu a hug, "Sonny woke up."

Lulu pulled away and Spinelli gasped.

"Is Mr. Sir undamaged?" he questioned.

"I don't' know," Dante said again, "He woke up as I was leaving. Michael and Carly were with him so I didn't want to intrude."

"Dante, we have to question him," Lulu said, "I know he just woke up and everything, but don't you think his first thought is going to be who did this?"  
"Yeah, I do," Dante said, "And I think he'll call Jason and they'll do something illegal. Which is why I shouldn't get involved."

"We haven't found anything yet," Lulu said, "But we're still working."

"You know with all the crime that goes on in this town," Dante said, sounding annoyed, "We should just have cameras everywhere, and make our jobs a lot easier."

"I'm afraid with all this alleged crime in this town the cameras wouldn't last," Spinelli said, "Criminals don't like to be caught on tape."

"If you're referring to Jason," Dante replied, "I don't we could put him away even if we did have a video of him pulling the trigger."

"Wait a minute," Lulu said standing up, "That's it!"

"Stonecold?" Spinelli questioned, "He's the answer?"

"No," Lulu replied, "Cameras. Don't you remember when there was that accident with Claudia? Kristina and Michael both thought they were the ones who ran her off the road."

"Yes, video footage surfaced of the crash," Spinelli said, "But that was out on the main road of town."

"The road that is right off of Lake Road."

Spinelli went to work furiously on his lap top. Lulu and Dante sat in silence, contemplating other leads or clues.

"We should search the yard," Lulu suggested.

"The PCPD already did," Dante explained, "Lucky's on the case."

"Then he can tell us what they found," she continued, "Maybe they missed something or they just need another perspective! He trusts us both."

Before Dante could answer his phone rang loudly.

"Dante, it's Jason," the voice replied when Dante answered.

"What's going on?"

"You were there when Sonny woke up," Jason stated, "Michael told me."

"Yeah I was," Dante replied, "But I didn't talk to him. He didn't even see me."

"Don't question him" Jason demanded, sticking to his true form of getting to the point, "I already asked him about what happened. He doesn't remember. He's beating himself up trying to think of what happened, but I think whoever did it drugged him too. They knew he'd see his face and didn't want him to remember."

"Ok," Dante replied, "I won't ask him, but if you come up with anything please call me. We can bring justice the right way."

"Tell me if you find anything."

Dante hung up his phone and explained the conversation.  
"If Mr. Sir was in fact drugged," Spinelli thought, "Then the attacker knew he'd wake up."

"They didn't want to kill him," Lulu finished, "It was a warning."

A dead silence followed as they all comprehended there new information. It seemed odd that someone would attack Sonny, but not go in for the kill.

After a full two minutes of silence a loud DING interrupted them. They all turned anxiously towards Spinelli's computer.

He pulled up a few videos he had found and started scrolling through them.

"We only have to look at them if they go right at that stop sign," Dante said, pointing to the video, "No one would go straight and then double back, even if they were just dropping off their car."

They watched for cars that turned right at the sign during a span of a few hours around the attack. When any car went down that road Spinelli would zoom in on the picture, they'd look for anything interesting, then take a screenshot of the license plate."

When they were done they had a long list of plate numbers that would take awhile to investigate.

"Are we just wasting time?" Lulu asked, "This was probably a stupid idea, people could be driving down that road for dozens of reasons."

"It's all we have right now," Dante replied, "Spinelli, can you run a search to find who owns all of those cars? From there we can look for something else suspicious, or track the whereabouts of the cars."

"You are aware that you're encouraging me to break the law you work so hard to uphold," Spinelli said, staring at Dante.

The struggle that Dante felt everyday of his life flashed across his face.

"Just run the search."

Lulu walked to the fridge and got Dante a beer. She hated seeing him so conflicted. Time went on and they talked and thought and Dante eventually fell asleep on the couch. Lulu took a few calls from Maxie and even called Carly too ask about Sonny.

Then finally, Spinelli gasped.

"I have found something most disturbing," he said.

Lulu shook Dante awake and they stared intently at Spinelli.

"Most of the names I have not recognized," Spinelli said, "They could be aliases or people from Sonny's past that we do not know of. But at the time of 6:30, a half hour before Sonny's attack, a car turned right at the sign. A car that belongs to the less demented of the brothers, but still wicked Jasper Jax."


	10. Chapter 9

**Sorry, no proofreading again. I'm in such a hurry to get this updated!**

**Chapter 10**

None of us knew what to do or say. The thought that it could have been Jax, Carly's ex and the stepfather of her children, was just too much.

"Shit," I said quietly, "This is terrible. Carly's gonna lose her mind. Oh my gosh!"

"Lulu, wait," Dante said, putting a hand on my shoulder, "This isn't solid proof. Maybe Jax was just stopping by, saw a lot of people were there and left. Or maybe he drove right by the house. We didn't solve the case just yet."

"Well now what do we do?" I asked, "Look into Jax, or search for more suspects."

"We need to tell Stonecold!" Spinelli exclaimed, "It is most imperative that we hasten to him, and get his wise and insightful view on the matter."

"Then let's go," I agreed, "Because if Jax did this, if he stabbed Sonny, Carly needs to know as soon as possible."

Spinelli shut his lap top and the three of us rushed out the door.

We arrived at Jason's penthouse fifteen minutes later. We had spent the whole ride in there in silence, each pondering how we could look into this further.

When Jason let us in we saw Sam sitting on the couch flipping through a large stack of files.

"Ugh, Spinelli," she said, "I'm so glad you're here. We need more information than the files have on some of these people."

"The Jackal will be most happy to assist Fair Samantha in her painstaking search, but first we three bring most disturbing news."

"What?" Jason demanded, "Did you find something?"

"Not exactly," Dante said, "But it could be worth looking into. We can prove Jax was in the vicinity of Alexis' house starting a half hour before Sonny was stabbed."

"Why would Jax stab Sonny?" Jason replied immediately.

"They've hated each other forever," I chimed in, "That's no secret."

"Yeah but why now?" Jason continued, "And it doesn't seem like Jax's style. He'd take Sonny down through court or by law."

"Unless he was bribed," Sam suggested, "Or blackmailed. Maybe someone's forcing Jax to do stuff so they can frame him and the real criminal won't get caught."

"We just don't have enough," Dante said, "But we should still look into it."

"Question him," Jason demanded, "You have enough to get a warrant. Search his house if you have to. We need to know where Jax was that whole day, what he did, and especially who he talked to."

"I'm on it," Dante said, "What are you going to do?"

"Sam and I are going to Sonny's," Jason explained, "Maybe one of his people saw something suspicious. Spinelli, you keep working on these files."

"Hey," Dante said quietly, "I have to do this on my own. You should get some rest or something."

"I think I'm going to go see Carly," I replied, "She has to be going through hell, yet again, right now."

"Ok," Dante replied, "It's up to you if you want to tell her about Jax."

"I don't know," I complained, "I don't know too until we're sure, but what if she asks me?"

"Don't worry about," he told me, "Just think about what you'd want. She's just going to be glad you're with her."

"You better go," I said, "Be careful."

"I love you."

Dante gave me a quick kiss, then ran out.

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I knocked softly on the door to Sonny's hospital room. Carly was sitting on the stool, holding his hand and leaning on the bed. I could barely tell if she was awake, or sleeping.

She looked up slowly. When she saw it was me she stood and silently came out to greet me.

"Hey," I said, "You're here again."

"I need to make him wake up," she said, "I can't bear the looks on Michael's and Morgan's faces when they're here or when they ask about him. They need him to wake up."

"A lot of people do," I told her, "And he knows that."

"I haven't talked to Jason," she admitted as we walked out to a couple chairs down the hallway, "Do you know if he has found anything?"

"They found a few leads," I said hesitantly, "But nothing solid yet."

"Jason will find whoever did this," Carly said fiercely, "I hope they know that."

"Hey," I said, "Have you eaten dinner? Do you want anything?"

Carly scoffed.

"I already had some coffee," she told me, "Guess who stopped by. Jax."

I felt a jolt in my stomach.

"Oh yeah?" I asked innocently, "Did he say why?"

"He wanted to make sure I wasn't forgetting to eat or sleep," she replied, "It's disgusting. Is he really going to try to get me back right now?"  
"Maybe he just wanted to make sure the boys were doing ok," I suggested, deciding to wait for more information.

She didn't need uncalled for stress right now.

"Well I don't know," Carly said, "But I don't want him hanging around here. Sonny would not enjoy seeing Jax as soon as he wakes up."

We talked for a few more minutes and I tried to casually get any information about Jax's whereabouts these days. But then, about ten minutes later, Dante called.

"Meet me at Kelly's," he said urgently.

I apologized, said I had to go, hugged Carly and rushed out of the hospital.

By the time I got to Kelly's Dante was sitting at the table outside, drumming his fingers.

"Hey," I said walking over to him, "What's going on?"

"I found something," he replied quickly, "I was talking to Jax, casually, but he could tell I wanted something. So I just went for it. Turns out he was at Alexis' that night."

"Oh my God," I mumbled, "And he told you."

"Yeah, cause that's not all," Dante went on, "He said he arrived at Alexis' and saw a few cars in the driveway. He was still going to go in, just to drop something off, but then he saw someone else. There was a guy, someone he thought looked vaguely familiar, walking towards her house. He couldn't tell exactly who it was, he was too far away. So he left."

"That's it?" I exclaimed, "He just let some random guy walk towards Alexis' house!"

"That's what I said," Dante went on, "But Jax also said it looked like a party, and he didn't want to interrupt."

"Could he give you any description of the guy?" I asked, "Any features?"

"He had one thought," Dante told me, "And I have guys checking right now to see if he's been on any planes recently. Once I get a call, we'll know."

But right then, I got a call.

"Fair Lulu!" Spinelli called when I answered the phone, "After inspected Mr. Sir's house, Stonecold found most disturbing news. Jax was in fact at Sonny's house earlier that day, asking where Mr. Sir was! A confused butler explained to Jax where Mr. Sir would be all night. Stonecold is on his way to Jax's apartment now."

"No!" I exclaimed, "He can't kill Jax!"

"Why is Jason killing someone!" Dante exclaimed.

"Spinelli, if this is true Carly will hate Jax, but she won't want him dead. Think about Morgan!"

"Aah! The fair one is right! I must call Stonecold now!"

"Spinelli," I said again, "Tell him we have another lead."

When I hung up Dante demanded the details of the conversation.

"So Jason was going to kill him with that little information?"

"No," I replied, "Just question him. I just wanted to be safe. If it does end up to be Jax, Jason can't kill him."

Dante's phone rang.

"Hello. Yes. Ok. Yes. Wow. Thank you."

"If the mystery man in town?" I asked.

"Yeah," Dante replied looking shocked, "Guy by the name of Rick Webber."


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

After Lulu had explained the history of Rick Webber and Sonny, I instantly knew it was worth checking into. I had called Lucky and he had set to work at the PCPD to find where Rick was hiding out.

"It still seems weird to me," I said to Lulu as we drove toward the PCPD, "I know to some people being siblings doesn't mean anything, but why now? After years of being out of town, why would Rick come back and stab Sonny?"

"It may not have been him," Lulu pointed out, "All we know right now is that Rick is back in town."

"And that he drove near Alexis' house around the time Sonny was stabbed," I added, "And from what you said they never got along."

"But that doesn't mean Rick would want to kill Sonny."

"While Lucky has guys searching for Rick, he'll be giving me a history lesson," I told Lulu, "I need to know everything this guy is capable of."

"What about Jason?" Lulu asked, "Are you going to call him?"

"Damn," I muttered, "I told him I would didn't I?"

"Do you just want me to call Spinelli?" she suggested as I pulled into the PCPD.

But she didn't need to. As we got out of the car, Spinelli pulled up next to us.

"Spinelli," I greeted when he got out, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for the mischievous detective and Fair Lulu," Spinelli replied, "It's proven. The Fierce one had been to Sonny's house earlier and when Stone Cold was talking to him, Jax could barely look him in the face."  
"That doesn't make sense though," Lulu commented, "Jax is a business man. He's used to lying to people faces and making all kinds of deals and arrangements. I doubt that talking to Jason would change that."

"I don't know," I commented, "He can be pretty scary."

Lulu rolled her eyes at me.

"Now's not the time for your award winning humor," she joked, actually causing me to smile in the midst of this mess.

"Well Spinelli," I said, "Before you make any accusations, we do have to tell you there's another suspect. Rick Webber is back in town and his car was near Alexis'."

Spinelli gasped.

"We were convinced it was a Jax brother, but all along it could have been Mr. Sir's own blood!" he exclaimed, "I must tell Stone Cold immediately!"

"Spinelli!" Lulu exclaimed, "You can tell him, but don't do anything. Lucky's tracking Rick right now and then Dante will bring him in for questioning."

Just then Lucky came walking out of the building.

"Well this is interesting," he said, joining us.

"Did you find him?" I asked.

"Not yet," Lucky answered dejectedly, "They're expanding the search."

"The Jackal must go locate a pair of…shoes!" Spinelli exclaimed.

"Right now?" Lucky asked suspiciously.

"Indeed! I just recalled, Fair Samantha was very particular about the arrival of them! Good day!"

"Should we stop him?" I asked, really not sure what to do, "We all know he's about to do some serious hacking."

"No he's not," Lulu cut in, "Lucky, he's shopping for shoes, you can't interrogate him for that."

Lucky and I both stared at her, wondering why she was so supportive of Spinelli doing this his way all of the sudden.

I smiled at her curiously.

"We have to go man," Lucky broke in, "We have a lot to talk about."

"Bye Lucky," Lulu stated, still looking at me.

Her brother rolled his eyes and started back toward the PCPD.

"Don't let them do anything," I said to her, "If you happen to find out where we can find Rick, you could always send me a text meant for Carly, but don't let Jason go after him."

Lulu smiled at me, sketchily, then pulled me in for a kiss.

"Don't worry, Detective," she grinned, "I'm a good girl."

Honestly, I would have rather taking her back to the car right then, but Lucky was still slowly walking toward the front door, so I had to go.

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**Lulu's POV**

When I got to Jason's penthouse, Spinelli was already typing furiously at this keyboard.

He called for me to come in, but from the look on his face I think he regretted it.

"Were you expecting someone else?" I asked.

"No, Fair Lulu is always welcome and it's always a pleasure," he told me, "But you mustn't try to stop The Jackal."

"I won't," I told him honestly, "I just want you to tell me where he is. This case is perfect for Dante. It's helping him figure out his feelings towards Sonny, and he's not going to let whoever did this get away."

"Though I do not wish to see The Blonde One in any distress, I must first and foremost listen to Stone Cold, " Spinelli told me, "And I daresay, he will want to take care of this in his own way."

"Tell her."

I turned towards the stairs as Jason slowly walked down.

"If it is Rick, Sonny would rather see him brought into prison for a long time then for me to kill him," Jason explained, "He may not be in his kid's lives, but Rick's death would still have an effect on Kristina and Molly."

"Alas, Stone Cold is correct yet again," Spinelli breathed.

"So do you have it?" I asked, noticing that Spinelli had stopped searching.

Fifteen minutes later, I was back at the PCPD.

Lucky and Dante were sitting at desk together. Without a word I pulled a slip of paper out of my pocket and dropped it in front of them.

"What's this?" Lucky asked.

"An address. You'll find Rick in the old hotel that those directions lead you to."

They stared at me.

"At least I think so," I added, "I found it lying out in the parking lot. So…."

"This is so twisted," Dante whispered as Lucky took a phone call.

"Its fine," I said, "You didn't get this information illegally. I gave it to you and like I said, I just stumbled across it."

"Uh huh," Dante replied, "On the ground at Jason's right?"

I grinned.

Usually, I would not advocate Dante or Lucky using illegal information to go about their jobs, but I knew how much Dante needed this. And honestly, only I had done anything against the law.

"Alright," Lucky said hanging up his phone, "I heard nothing. Let's do this."

He walked off to get ready.

"You know you can't come," Dante joked standing up, to face me.

"Yeeah," I whined, "But I should be able too. I could help."

"You still can," Dante replied sexily, "Wait for me. I'm not sure when I'll be home, but I promise you, I'll make it worth your while."

I could tell he regretted it as soon as he finished saying it. We both knew that's what he told me before he started blowing me off and we broke up for three years."

"Dante," I whispered, "I know you will. I believe you."

He pressed his lips against mine roughly.

"I love you."

And within a few minutes my boyfriend and my brother were off to question the long lost Rick Webber.

Sorry, not a lot of proofreading here! I already feel like a jerk for taking so long, so I'm in a hurry!

Thought/reviews please!  
Who do you think stabbed Sonny Corithos!


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

My knock echoed through the dark hallway. Lucky and I had followed directions to the address Lulu had given us and found ourselves at a dump of a hotel outside of town. After flashing my badge to the guy at the desk he gave led me to the room where Rick was staying. Lucky and I were now standing in front of room 101 under a flickering light.

"Open the door," Lucky demanded as I continued to knock.

We heard some shuffling on the other side and I figured we were now being stared at through the peep hole.

"It's the police!" I exclaimed getting impatient, "Open the door, or we kick it down."

After a few more minutes the door opened, and there stood Rick.

"Spencer," Rick said, "You're still a cop?"

"Somehow I find it hard to believe that you're surprised by that," Lucky answered, "You always kept yourself so well informed."

"I haven't been in Port Charles in years," Rick responded, "This is the closest I've been since I've left."

"It's funny how easily you can admit that," Lucky went on, "Seeing that you have a daughter in Port Charles."

"Is that why you're here?" Rick asked, "Or can I help you with something?"

"This is my partner," Lucky introduced, "But I'm sure you know that as well."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Rick questioned.

"Tell me Rick," Lucky said, "How long have you been caved up out here? How long have you been hovering over Port Charles?"  
"I'm here on business Spencer."

"I sure hope you're employer didn't send you here," I chimed in, "It's not exactly...high class."

"So far, officers," Rick spat, "I have yet to see any reason why you're disturbing me."

"Alright Rick," I said, "Then we'll cut to the chase."

I started my normal stream of questions. Where they were on certain nights, people they've dealt with, anything that could lead us to a clue. After ten minutes all we had got out of him was that he wasn't anywhere near Alexis' house the night of the accident.

"It's funny you should say that," I grinned, "Because right now on record at the PCPD is a video of a car passing onto the street Alexis lives on. And interestingly enough, that car is registered under your name."

Rick barely flinched. As Lucky had told me, Rick was trained in not slipping up through words or expression, but usually he was defending someone other than himself.

"Now you could argue that someone else was behind the wheel, but it appears you're here by yourself," Lucky said.

"Rick," I said, "Is it possible you came all this way because you want to visit with your recovering brother? Did you get cold feet, or have you just not made the trip to the hospital yet?"

"I'm not here to see Sonny."

"So you don't care that he was stabbed brutally and is now fighting for his life in a hospital bed?" I went on, "I'd say that gives us a pretty clear description of your relationship. Of course the first suspect is Jasper Jax. It just makes sense. They've been enemies for so long. But then again it's not really Jax's style to get his hands dirty. But he does have the money to hire someone else, who equally hates Sonny to do it."

"STOP!" Rick shouted, "The damn PCPD is more corrupt that it's ever been! You should have nothing to do with this case!"

"Rick," Lucky said, "Why shouldn't he?"

"What?" Rick said calmly, trying to compose himself, "Well because, he clearly is invested in Sonny. Emotionally."

"He's just doing his job," Lucky said, "Aren't you, man?"

"Exactly," I responded, "Can we go on, Rick?"

"Spare me, Dante."

Lucky and I smiled, ready to take advantage of the mistake.

"Rick," I said again, "I don't remember mentioning my name."

"Oh come on," Rick said, "You can't really think that that is evidence! I've been here in this hotel for a few weeks now and everyone connected to Sonny knows about his son the undercover cop who came out of nowhere."

"Thank you," I said, "I believe that was an admission that you are perfectly aware of the happenings of Port Charles and have been here awhile planning a visit."

"Yeah," Lucky chimed in, "Or planning something else."

"What the hell happened to innocent until proven guilty?" Rick demanded, "All of you down at the PCPD are dirty cops."

"The thing is, Rick, you haven't given us any alibi's, explanations, or proof not to suspect you," I said, "So until then, you seem pretty suspicious."

"It's suspicious that I'm staying outside the town that I lived in for years!" Rick said, remaining angry, "I have family here!"  
"Good point," Lucky replied, "So why are you staying out in this crappy, sketchy hotel when you have all kinds of relatives in town?"

"Maybe you've forgotten, Spencer, I didn't exactly leave town on good terms."

"Which brings us back to the first question," I laughed, "Why are you here?"

"Not that I owe any explanation to where I go on vacation," Rick went on, "But is it that hard to believe that I wanted to see my daughter and my ex-wife?"

"Is that why you were in town that night?" I asked, "To visit Molly?"

"Yes!"

"But you didn't," Lucky said, "Why?"

"There were other people there," Rick said, "I wasn't about to see my daughter for the first time in front of a bunch of strangers and people I never cared for."

And then we had him. He had already told us he hadn't been in town yet and now he was saying he had gone to Alexis's.

"Forgive me if I'm wrong," I demanded, "But for someone who hasn't even been in town yet it sure is surprising how much you know about the night Sonny was stabbed. I mean, you even know the guest list from that night."

"Give it up Rick," Lucky demanded.

Of course, Rick refused to say anything else and without a piece of evidence or confession we couldn't take him in without a warrant.

"Don't leave the country," I demanded, "Any flee will be taken as a submission of guilt."

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That night Dante was sitting at his desk pouring over papers when Jason came bursting into the PCPD.

"I've got something," he said fiercely but quietly as Dante stood up.

"In here."

Jason followed Dante into the interrogation room and demanded an explanation.

"I wasn't convinced that Jax was out of the picture," Jason admitted, "So I went back over to his place. I started looking around for something that could help us out. I found a desk in a back room that had stuff thrown across it and one drawer."

"What was in the drawer?" I asked anxiously.

"A knife," Jason responded, "It was dirty and crusted with blood and looked like it had been thrown in quickly."

"Wait a minute," Dante stopped him, "I thought you were convinced Jax didn't do this."

"He didn't!" Jason said, "No one actually leaves used bloody knives thrown into drawers."

"It was planted," Dante said thoughtfully, "You think someone's trying to frame Jax?"

"I had Spinelli research the knife," Jason went on, "He found some rare inscription on it that's only carved into certain knives made in Japan."

"Who do we know that's recently been in Japan," Dante questioned.

"No one," Jason responded, "But we don't know where Rick has been."

"One more thing," Dante thought, "I can't use an illegally obtained piece of evidence."

"It wasn't obtained."

**abjkhelkjahuehovhakljdhab;je;hjaophbeijab;lkej**

Yet again Dante and Lucky were working together. They had gotten a search warrant for Jax's apartment and the next day went to check out their lead.

"This is ridiculous," Jax said as they began their search, "I did not have anything to do with what happened to Sonny. Come on Dante, I know he's your father but is framing me really worth earning points for Sonny. And you Lucky, I thought you were better than this."

"We're not here for you Jax," Lucky spat, "So please keep your mouth shut and let us do our job."

After awhile Dante went to check out the desk Jason had tipped him off about and sure enough, there it was.

Dante and Lucky followed procedure and took it with them, only one thing left to do.

Within fifteen minutes they had arrived at Rick's doorstep.

"Glad to see you're still here," Lucky said, walking into the room alone.

"I'm not guilty," Rick responded, "Why would I leave?"

Dante listened in the hallway, hoping that with only Lucky there Rick would feel less interrogated and be more willing to talk.

Lucky casually asked were Rick planned to go next and how many years, exactly he had been out of town.

"Where were you?" Lucky asked, "Right before you came back here?"  
"California," Rick asked, "I was there on business. As I was for most of the other places I went."

"Did you do business internationally?"  
"Of course," Rick said cockily, "Not many people in our company were willing to go to France, Russia, Japan!"

"Was it a challenge to work in such oddly different places?" Lucky went on.

"Look Lucky," Rick said, "Can we end this now? You aren't going to get any information out of me, because I know nothing!"

"Actually, I know everything I need to know," Lucky smirked, "Did you enjoy your time in Japan?"

And, right on cue, Dante stepped in.

"Rick Webber you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent..."

**I'm so sorry for the time it took me and errors! However, sorry doesn't even cover it! If you're not angry at me, please review still! Haha I have a life again, so it won't take me as long!**


	13. Another Note

I feel like such an idiot! I can't believe I've been putting Rick's last name as Webber! I am a true fan, and I do know it's actually Lansing! Hahaha For some reason Webber is just what came to me when I was typing.

Thank you so much to the reviewer who pointed this out to me, so I could apologize. I was going to fix all the errors, but the quickest way to do so is just apologize.

Sorry for the fake update, and thank you for pointing that out!


	14. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Rick was sitting in the interrogation room handcuffed to the table. We had brought him in and had already been interrogated him for awhile. We already had the evidence now we were just prying as to why he did it.

"Are you getting anywhere?" Ronnie asked coming up to me.

"No," I said shortly, filled with frustration, "Lucky is in there with him now."

"Why keep it a secret?" Ronnie asked, "We already got him."

"Well he called his own lawyer so I assume he's gonna do all he can to get out of a serious conviction. Including telling us as little as possible."

As I said this Sonny came walking into the PCPD.

"Oh of course," Ronnie said, "You called Daddy."

"Rick is his brother," I replied, "And Sonny is the one who got stabbed so back off man. Seriously, I've had enough of your bullshit. Sonny being my father hasn't fueled any part of this interrogation."

I pushed past my old partner and greeted Sonny.

"Let me see my dear brother," Sonny spat.

"Sonny I can't let you just walk in there."

"Dante, listen to me," Sonny went on, "I know Rick. He's gonna use all his little tricks and tactics from when he was a big bad lawyer, right? Well, I've seen them all before. I'm his brother, he stabbed me, I can get it out of him why he finally snapped."

"Look, Lucky is in there with him now," I went on, "Just give him some time."

"Check again."

I turned and Lucky was walking out looking defeated.

"He's not talking," Lucky said, "But it sounds like money exchanged hands."

"Of course," Sonny chimed in, "Rick was always a dirty rat underneath. He's been living a crap life compared to what he used to have. If enough money was involved, and the right bribes were put in place, he'd do it."

Within five minutes we had both agreed to let Sonny talk to Rick. We gave him five minutes.

**asdjaklsdjaniepinrivjkleja;lkja;eio**

"Hey brother," I said, walking into the interrogation room, "How've you been?"  
"They let you in here?" Rick spat, "While this place really has gone down."

"Oh yeah," I replied, "Compared to the upstanding police department you used to run."

"Look Sonny, what are you doing here? What do you want?"

I chuckled, which startled Rick.

"What's funny?" he questioned.

"Oh well," I smiled, "It's just, I have stitches right now and my side is really tender. See, I was recently stabbed with a knife by my brother! So it's ironic that you would be questioning me."  
"Oh shut up," Rick began, "Don't get all high and mighty and pretend – "

"Rick," I whispered, "I'll be asking the questions."

He sat back in his chair, angrily looking away.

"Who paid you?" I asked.

"Unbelievable," Rick muttered, "I was framed."

"Framed!" I laughed again, "Come on, Rick. Let it go. We both know that ship has sailed. So stop wasting all of our time and just tell me. I'm not here for the police. I'm here for myself and my family. Let me explain something to you, alright. Someone paid you to cut at me with a knife, but they wanted you to finish me off. You failed, clearly. So while you're part in this may be over, the main goal is not! They'll hire someone else, someone better, and someone even more ruthless. Someone who doesn't care about the rest of my family. Someone who would have shot me while I was sitting in Alexis's house, next to Kristina and Molly. So if you are that far over the edge that you'll let some nut job send hit man after hit man towards me and my family, by all means keep your mouth shut. But remember, I can help you. If you help me protect my family I'll tell my son, the detective, not to be quite so hard on you."

I watched as Rick comprehended what I had said. After a few good moment of silence I stood up.

"What a brave decision," I said sarcastically, "I'll be sure to tell your niece….and your daughter, just how willing you were to protect them."

I had almost stepped completely out the door when right on queue….

"Sonny."

"Rick."

"I don't know who it was."

"Wrong answer," I smiled again, turning to leave.

"Listen to me," Rick exclaimed. He never told me his name. He came to me one night when I was in some crappy bar. He was a young guy, wearing a suit. He kept talking about his dead brother who wasted his life on someone. And he also talked a lot about Jason. Apparently Jason is the main target but to unravel Jason's life he was starting with you."

"Franco's dead," I said more to myself than Rick.

"What?"  
"So what," I went on, "This guy you don't know, but knows you, shows up and offers you a bunch of money to take a stab at me."  
"He kept going on about you and he knew just what to say to provoke me. To remind me every reason that I hate you. He talked about Molly and Kristina and how you were in their life and I wasn't and you're a worse influence than I am. He just knew what to say, and he had the money I needed."

"I'm gonna stop you there," I said, "Before you start getting too emotional and ask for a hug or something. Oh and good luck in court. I'm sure you remember Diane Miller. She's a handful!"

With one last smile I turned and walked back to Lucky and Dante.

I told them everything Rick had told me.

"Nice work," Lucky said, "I'll go start some paperwork."

"So someone else is after Jason," Dante said.

"Franco's brother," I added, "It has to be him. Only someone has crazy as Franco the artist would have a very similar brother."

"If Franco had a brother don't you think Jason would know?" Dante added.

"Looks like little Spinelli has some digging to do," I said.

Dante nodded and for a second we were silent.

"Dante," I said, "I know it doesn't mean anything to you, but I'm proud of you. You did good work and saved me from a lot. A lot of people wouldn't have cared who stabbed me and were probably hoping I didn't make it."

"I'm glad you did," Dante said, "And as far as the case, I was just doing my job."

"I'm sorry I didn't know you until now," I said, "But you're mom did a damn good job."

"Thank you," Dante said, "And I may not agree with your lifestyle, but you are a good dad to your kids. For what it's worth."

And to me it was worth a lot. It was a start.

**Asdjkfa;lskjanviepoiajkldjf;alkjekva**

"Who was that?" Sam asked as I hung up my phone.

"Sonny," I replied, then relayed everything I had just found out about Rick.

"Wait a minute," Sam said walking over to stand in front of me, "Franco may have an equally crazy brother who is now coming to unravel your life?"  
"I don't want you to worry," I said, "I won't let anything happen to you, Sam."

"Jason, I'm not worried about myself, I'm worried about you."

"I'll call Spinelli and have him start researching. If it is Franco's brother I can take him. He's clearly not as experienced as Franco or he wouldn't have hired Rick. As for tonight, though, I don't want to think about it."

"Oh yeah?" Sam asked, smirking at me, "What do you want to think about?"  
"You," I grinned, wrapping my arms around her, "But without this."

I tugged on her loose shirt as she squeezed closer to me.

"Now that," she smiled, "Is something you don't just have to think about."  
She planted a kiss on me and I slowly slid my hands up to remove the shirt.

"We'll take care of everything else tomorrow," Sam breathed, barely audible, "Don't worry."

"I'm not worried," I whispered, pushing her over to the couch and covering her mouth with mine, "I love you." 

**Kajsd;fkja;sdjaopiejpaiojve;jav;klej;vka**

I was sitting on the couch in Dante's and my loft typing on my lap top. I was wearing a pair of shorts and one of Dante's shirts that had been confused with mine on the floor. I buttoned a few buttons to keep it on, but other than that I didn't really care. I was swamped with work and I didn't plan on seeing Dante tonight since he'd be working on his case.

Needless to say I jumped in surprise when the door flew open.

"Aah!" Dante exclaimed happily, "Time to celebrate!"

I looked up, already a smiled on my face.

"Dante! I wasn't expecting you! What are we celebrating?"

"Other than my girlfriend who is sexy as hell," he grinned leaning down to plant a kiss on my lips.

"Rick Lansing has officially been convicted of stabbing Sonny, we forced the story and a confession over him and the case is closed!"

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed setting my computer down, "Dante that is amazing!"

He came walking back as quick as possible carrying two chutes of champagne and two beers.

"Ooh classy," I grinned, loving it.

"Tomorrow I'm taking you out to dinner, or anywhere fancy so we can dress up and I can drool over you all night. But tonight I just want to spend here on the couch with you."

"I guess Kate's meetings can wait," I smiled.

"Oh yes," he replied, "They certainly can. But I cannot."

We held up our champagne glassed.

"To Dante," I said, "The most brilliant and sexiest detective in the world!"

"To Lucky, Jason, and even Sonny, and everyone who helped close this case!"

"Slightly less romantic," I mumbled with a smile, "But I'll take it."

We downed our champagne then Dante grinned at me.

"You want romantic?" he asked leaning over top of me, "Let's start right here."

He went straight for the middle button of his shirt that I was wearing and slooowly starting unbuttoning the few I had taken time to button. He flung the shirt open and smile down at me.

"I love you."

And with that he silenced me with his lips. It didn't take long for his shirt to be unbuttoned as well and we pulled them off of each other.

Dante mumbled various compliments as we continued to kiss each other ferociously.

It was a long time later, but eventually we were lying together on the couch slowly drinking our beers and talking.

"Everything's back to normal," he said, "It's perfect."

"It sure is," I agreed, "Case closed."

**THE END!**

**I have to end it here, I don't want to drag it out any longer and since I've gotten terrible at posting quickly it's better this way! Hahahaha Please leave one last review! Thank you sooooo much for sticking with me!**


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